In general, network communications can involve unpredictable delays while transporting data. These delays, depend on their path of traverse. Thus, communications hardware is generally designed to handle various delays incurred in multiple paths, while still retaining the integrity of the information communicated.
Within a packetized communications system, delays between packets can result in difficulties in transmission of information. Moreover, in a system using multiple paths, delays can vary from path to path. In a system sending packets over a virtual channel transport over multiple paths, delays are then potentially unpredictable and disruptive. Virtual channel communications in which packets may traverse multiple paths between source and destination are thus potentially fraught with error.
Simulating the differential delay between tributaries forming a channel is therefore potentially useful in testing communications systems and communications hardware supporting differential delay correction between virtually concatenated tributaries. A conventional method of simulation includes determining what data to send, determining appropriate delays to insert within data, and then providing the data and delays as a single unified package. This package may be a set of bytes to be transmitted, with data intermixed with bytes representing delays which must be filtered out. If the expected delays to be simulated are short relative to the time required to transmit the data, then this will not require too much overhead. However, as the duration of expected delays increases, the additional bytes representing delay in a simulation increase in a potentially exponential manner.
Thus, it may be advantageous to provide a test/simulation environment in which a different method of simulating differential delay is available, thus obviating the need for storage of bytes representing delay. Similarly, as testing of products is preferably repeatable, it may be advantageous to provide a repeatable method of simulating delay.